Tag Archives: food and drink

Owners of Garleton Lodge unveil details of their delicious new handmade chocolate business – The Chocolate Stag

Angela and David Cockerton, owners of Garleton Lodge, a luxury small hotel in East Lothian, are delighted to announce the launch of their new handmade chocolate business – The Chocolate Stag.

Having worked in the property and catering industries in the Middle East, Angela and David Cockerton decided to return to the UK and set up a small hotel, Garleton Lodge, which offers a careful blend of five-star luxury in a homely environment. One year on, and having received various quality and food awards for the hotel, Angela (and David) have launched their very own handmade chocolate business – The Chocolate Stag – which is a complementary business to Garleton Lodge.

David & Angela previously ran a very successful handmade chocolate business before they moved to the Middle East. This was Angela’s first step towards following her (& David’s) passion for food & drink after more than 20 years as an accountant in the corporate world. The chocolate business has been ‘waiting to happen again’ – since their businesses in the Middle East focused on catering and a Cookery School.

Relaunching the chocolate business has always been part of Angela & David’s business plan since their return to the UK and establishing Garleton Lodge. In 2017, they launched Garleton Lodge primarily as an accommodation business. In 2018, their plan has been to expand Garleton Lodge, with greater focus on the food & drink/restaurant side of the business and to (re)launch the chocolate business. This is now a reality. Next, the plan in 2019, is to add a Cookery School onto Garleton Lodge to add yet another reason for guests to stay at this amazing hotel – which recently received a Quality Assurance Gold Award from Visit Scotland.

Angela Cockerton, commented; “There are strong linkages between Garleton Lodge and The Chocolate Stag, with guest room ‘treats’, end of dinner petit-fours in the restaurant (open to non-residents on Saturday evenings as well as private events), and with our famous afternoon teas. Before adopting the GL letter-based logo for Garleton Lodge, we had intended on using a stag as the Garleton Lodge logo. This was dropped but the stag became embedded in our brand and internal décor – we have stags everywhere! With this, and the daily visits from local deer (including stags), the name ‘The Chocolate Stag’ was a natural choice for our handmade chocolate business.”

David Cockerton said: “Angela and I are delighted to launch The Chocolate Stag and we have further exciting plans in the pipeline – including the introduction of a Cookery School aimed at showcasing not only Angela’s cooking but also East Lothian’s abundance of food and drink producers.”